Olympics and Max

Had a bit of time to kill at Paddington station on Thursday, so after checking out the sushi bar, replenishing my cash from the hole in the wall and having a surprisingly decent pint in the pub on the first floor (went in there as it was the only place around to have a 'free' pee), I strolled into the London 2012 Olympics shop. As expected it was full of absolute dross and was deserted despite a thronging buzz of humanity pervading the station concourse. Even in the unlikely event of finding something worth purchasing, I would have walked out because there was only one acceptable pay method: "we are proud to accept only Visa" proclaimed a sign near the door, enough to put anyone off. Spectators will find this when they flock to all the events in the summer (Visa & Cola being the dominant brands). What would Baron de Coubertin make of this rampant commercialism?

Some other recent headlines that make me angry that London bid and won the Olympics (my feelings have been made very clear, Paris had the infrastructure in place yet London won the bid due to politics ... wrong):

"Games venues likely to cost taxpayer millions."

"Recession blamed as Olympics fails to inspire youngsters."

"Olympic Park loses 75% of its value."

"Union chief crows about £2,500 Olympics deal for DLR drivers."

On top of all that, Cameron decides to double the budget for the pointless opening & closing ceremonies despite assurances in previous years that Britain would not try to match Beijing with wasted money and would mark these events with some prudence. So all this nonsense about China ramming their corrupt system down our throats with sick amounts of money is now being mirrored by Britain. Add in the Plastic Brits, mainly athletes who have competed for the US but realised they are not good enough so have found a way of ingratiating themselves into a GB vest at the expense of others more worthy, despite a broad American accent, then drape themselves in the union flag ... arghh! Plus the marathon not finishing in the stadium, the first time this iconic sporting moment will be lost at the Olympics, because London is embarrassed by its East End, why? Finally we have the sickening thought of an ageing David Beckham captaining the England - sorry, Great Britain - football team despite no longer being good enough to play for an English league team.

Anyway, despite all that I was mighty impressed by Mo's 1500m in Glasgow today, what an athlete thanks to Alan Storey. All the credit is going to Alberto Salazar but Farah was already on his way before they teamed up - I was in Barcelona to see him destroy the 5000m field in the Euro Champs in 2010, one of the most powerful performances I've ever seen.

Of course, if anyone does have a spare ticket - a good friend of mine this week got a call out of the blue and managed to purloin one for an evening athletics session ... for free! - I would be very happy to partake in the experience. Otherwise I'll just have to take Natalie on our annual father/daughter bonding session to a Diamond League meet somwhere in Europe - she's talking New York, I'm not!

Back on the domestic front, I attached a number to my Cirencester vest for the first time in over two years to take part in the Boxing Day 4m Challenge at Cheltenham Racecourse. It was great to meet up with some old pals - Paul Barlow, Dave Newport, Andy Prophett, Andy McCoy and a few others - as well as to trigger memories of the late 'Speedy' Pete Holmes who died so tragically at such a young age and whose name is on the trophy for the day's individual winner. Sadly, but not surprisingly, it wasn't me this year but I enjoyed pottering around and it was great to be in a mildly competitive race situation again.

After the race we spent the rest of Boxing Day with my sister Hazel and brother-in-law Max (pictured at our place) and others at their rented cottage in Whelford. We had a wonderful lunch, chatted about all sorts of issues, but mainly the state of the Euro, drank some wine, ate well and felt good about life. Two days later Max died at the age of 61. Puts into perspective all those silly little issues that we carry around with us all the time. RIP Max, I can still remember you cheering me on in the Olympic Trials Marathon in Milton Keynes in 1980 and being amazed that I then went on to party all night in St John's Wood with my Aussie mates!

Dylan

"Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

Dylan Thomas didn't know what he was starting by penning those words. At my relatively tender age I shouldn't even be contemplating them but so many things have happened to my mind and body that there is a limit to how much fight I have in me. Pathetic really compared to some others I know, including two octogenarians who are still enjoying their running (as has been recorded on this blog), plus another friend who still runs despite the ravages of cancer. There is a limit to how much I can put up with though; my body is battered, disintegrating like a badly packed kebab.

Anyway, I've hung in there this autumn and despite my better judgement have completed and, I have to say, enjoyed, another two mob matches. Bone dry conditions clearly helped as I eased my aching body across Wimbledon Common against Thames Hare & Hounds and in Richmond Park, not chasing You Tube's famous dog Benson but as part of Ranelagh's winning team against the Heathens. I even won the handicap in the park thanks to my cunning plan of running so slowly in the last two years. Before both I ran another Parkrun in Swindon (see picture), smashing the 20 minute barrier once again!

A couple of things have caught my eye in recent weeks. Firstly, I was really interested to read in AW that top international cyclist Emma Pooley, who won the world time trial championships in 2010 and will be an integral part of the women's team for next year's Olympic road race, ran in the Lakeland Trail 14km race at Helvellyn in November. What caught my eye was that she not only won the race but she beat Susan Partridge, Britain's top marathoner in 2011 thanks to her performance in the World Championships in Daegu. That says an awful lot about the fitness levels and professionalism of British cycling right now.

Secondly, hard training sessions ... a piece in AW charted some athletes' toughest sessions; my favourite was top ultra runner Jez Bragg who cited 3 x Snowdon (yes, the highest mountain in Wales) as part of his build up to major races - that's an impressive hill session and makes my old 10 x Richmond Hill look pretty pathetic. Another set of sessions that impressed, albeit with a tinge of sadness, was that of George Dayantis: the England ultra distance international wrote about his build up to a big 100km race in a recent Road Runners Club newsletter, it involved successive long Sunday runs of 50km, 60km, 70km. The sadness is that earlier this year he died.

The nearest I got to anything like these sessions was in a Dutch race I did five times with Ranelagh. The Barendrecht 100km track relay involved a four man team each running 62 x 400m with 3½ minutes recovery (in my best year I averaged 68 seconds). We won it four times with a best time of 4hr 46m (work it out in marathon terms, it's pretty rapid). The picture shows us winning in 1982 with, from left, Simon Collingridge, me, Simon Hedger & Steve Pautard. Our record breaking team was the same apart from Mike Riley replacing Hedger; I was slightly slower than Collingridge, my flatmate at the time - so I wasn't even the fastest runner in my house! Simon, like me, has been featured in Ranelagh's "12 of the best" link which is reproduced here (more to come, including Hugh Jones hopefully): http://www.ranelagh-harriers.com/interviews.html

More soon on my thoughts on the London Olympics ... oh dear!

Give Peas a Chance

Should we be worried about education standards or should we just admire the wit of this bizarre piece of graffiti spotted adorned on a railway bridge above the M25 last weekend? I prefer to think it's the latter: having wrapped many frozen packets of the little green orbs around various parts of my broken body over the years, I've clearly not given the poor mites a chance to give pleasure on the dinner table where they belong, preferably pressed and mixed in with mashed potato alongside a nice piece of (batterless) fish.

It was on my way to a grand occasion that took me under the graffiti laden bridge. Of the four other clubs Ranelagh race every year in mob matches, Orion Harriers is much the youngest (Thames Hare & Hounds being the oldest, having been founded around 1867). Orion was founded in 1911, so are celebrating their centenary this year. Rather than the usual two teams competing, all five members of this elite club were invited to a mass mob match, with the extra celebration of sampling Orion's new clubhouse for the first time (some of us remember outside washing facilities from many years ago). Epping Forest was looking a true picture on a beautiful sunny autumnal day. More importantly, following an unseasonally warm and dry spell the usual quagmire conditions were nowhere to be seen. You cannot believe what a difference that made to an old crock like me!

As regular readers (surely there can't be any ...) will know, my training has been dire for two years now and the cumulative effect of this is really digging in, irrespective of what aches & pains are flavour of the month (for what it's worth, currently both Achilles, one shoulder and my left big toe, don't even ask, I've no idea). Having dropped Claudie off at East Midlands airport to visit her stricken mother, I took the opportunity to meet up with old friend, Andy Bradley, who lives nearby. This was just two days before the mob match so I suggested to Andy that we had a run before the far more pleasurable aspects of Derbyshire life, namely an old fashioned pub and a pint or two of Marstons Pedigree. After walking up the nearest hill from Chevin Road, we started our run on a lovely high level track looking across the Peak District, then ran down through some meadows and back alongside the River Derwent. It was a pleasant 45 minutes and gave me confidence that maybe another 'mob' was viable.

Winner and runner-up of the Chevin '5'

To the race itself: after a few team photos, speeches and traditional club cries, around 200 took to the one lap circuit through the forest. As anticipated I was able to run at a reasonable pace on the flat stretches but really struggled on the many hills. A finishing position of 73rd had very little merit other than being one of the few I've not previously managed over my 144 mobs (every position between 1 and 35 has been encountered at least once). Orion, of course, won the team race comfortably, which is at it should be. A commemorative mug and fine free tea spread was very welcome as was the beer at a local hostelry before the journey home.

Thanks to Orion's centenary I have to get my aching body through five rather than the usual four mobs this winter. Hopefully the rain will stay away all winter ...

Ed Whitlock

This man just becomes ever more amazing. Yesterday in Toronto Ed ran a 3.15.54 marathon ... he is 80 years old and broke his own world V80 record by 10 minutes, which in itself was another 15 minutes better than the previous best. Ed - seen here with me and Dutch friend Alex in Rotterdam five years ago - is a lovely self effacing character who just loves running.

I was pretty impressed to note last night that just a few hours after his great performance it had been updated to Wikipedia. Who does these things ...?

In the World Masters Championships in Sacramento, California this year Ed won the V80 1,500 by 90 seconds in 5.48; the 5,000 by 4 minutes in 21.32 and the 10,000 by 11 minutes in 42.39, all three times were world records of course.

He invariably wears his Ranelagh vest when racing even though his link with our club is relatively tenuous: he ran once or twice in the 60's before emigrating to Canada. He's come down to the club a couple of times in recent years and been royally treated. What a man!

Eat more cake

In one of the weekend supplements recently I read an interview with the universally popular Michael Johnson - why can't all sports tv commentators say what they really think rather than what they feel viewers want to hear? - about his daily routine. In a move that may lose him a few admirers, he stated that both when he was an elite athlete and now that he's a relative couch potato, he eats a lot of burgers. Shock, horror! Today's 'new' runners will be amazed that an elite athlete did such a thing. Steve Cram was the same, loved his burgers. One of the great US marathoners of the 70's (either Frank Shorter or Bill Rodgers) came out with the great phrase when interviewed that he was on a seafood diet: no, he wasn't a Rick Stein fanatic, but such was his hunger that when he could see food he would eat it! The point being that to sustain big mileage and hard training he had to put fuel back into the engine, thus lots of protein, carbohydrates and calories, nothing scientific. You cannot be an Olympic marathon champion on carrot sticks alone.

I was in the local garden centre recently on a midweek day off and stopped off with Claudie for a coffee. On the counter were cakes and pastries perfect for a runner (so not for me!), but I couldn't resist and got stuck in to both mine and half of Claudie's. Brought back memories of lunchtime training runs in London followed by a couple of pints and a big salt beef sandwich in the pub, before dropping in to the deli on way back to the office for a couple of buns. Happy days.

My 'running' went back on hold in early August when my left 'good' Achilles popped and I had to abort a three mile run halfway through and walk back. Six weeks off completely and I'm now back with some gentle jogging. For the first time I tried Kinesio taping, as seen on a lot of athletes these days (Lisa Dobriskey was covered in the stuff at the World Champs), and although a bit of a cynic I have to state that the pain eased a lot quicker than I expected and certainly quicker than ever before. Time will tell if there's real improvement.

Finally, I read a very sad story in the paper this weekend and one that all we runners should take note of. Bill Smith, a 75 year old veteran member of Clayton-le-Moors Harriers (Ron Hill's club) and a well known figure in fell running circles (he'd written a book on the subject), was found dead in a peat bog on Saddle Fell in the Trough of Bowland. The area was so remote that his body wasn't discovered for three weeks - he'd apparently fallen whilst on a training run. Two things: when going out running alone, particularly if off road, tell someone your planned route (the fell may have been particularly remote but I can think of plenty of places within five miles of my home where I've run and never seen a soul); secondly have some form of identification on you. You just never know ...

Summer of sport

This is a running blog intended to chart my experiences in this great sport. Sadly there have been precious few running happenings over the last two years hence big gaps in my musings. There is little that can be written about Parkruns, the only events I've partaken in; they are the ultimate fun runs with usually 99% outside 20 minutes.

Anyway, following on from last year's July odyssey following/supporting athletics/athletes around Europe - Cork, Paris, Barcelona - I have been to a trio of big events in recent times, although only one was outside the UK and they were different sports. I started with an excellent day on Wimbledon's Centre Court (Murray; Nadal v Del Potro; Williams, V) with Claudie, courtesy of tickets from running mate Andy Bradley; then forayed down to the French Riviera and a new country for me, Monaco, for the Diamond League athletics meeting; finally to the Cheltenham Cricket Festival for Glos v Surrey. All three were played out in glorious summer sunshine, a real bonus in our fickle weather cycles.

Add to these big events the incomparable Tour de France, superbly compered by ITV4 (athletics broadcasters take note), the ever enjoyable British Open and some exciting Formula One races (I walked through Monaco's F1 tunnel, quite an experience) and you have the usual wonderful summer of sport with still the World Athletics Champs to come.
Whilst both the tennis and cricket were enjoyable, the fitness levels of the male tennis players being of particular interest, the highlight was Monaco. The Diamond League is certainly well marketed - it clearly helps when Usain Bolt is participating - and has to be the best value for money in sport with our tickets, in row one just after the finish line, a mere €6. (I doubt that this week's Diamond League at Crystal Palace will be quite such good value but Monaco was clearly priced to ensure a full house.) The super cool Phillips Idowu was on our plane, he's certainly not the archetypal travelling international athlete, dressed more like a break dancer.

Highlight of the meeting was Mo Farah's superb 12:53 UK 5000 metre record. As is his wont these days, he lay well off the fast pace in the early laps, which I thought a little dangerous given the quality of the field - all the top Africans bar Bekele, plus Rupp, Lagat and Solinsky from the USA - but when the pacemakers pulled out the field concertinaed as the lap times dropped a few seconds from the 62s that were being churned out. Farah then took charge and looked dominant as he outsprinted Lagat down the home straight whilst the other two Americans both tripped over African legs and dropped out of the race, Solinsky taking his anger out on a pot plant and an advertising hording with his fist / foot (not the first fight of the night either ...).

Is Farah's breakthrough this year all down to his move to Alberto Salazar's group in America? I don't think so; it has clearly helped, not least in lifestyle in comparison to Kenya for him and his young family. The breakthrough was coming anyway: I was in Barcelona for his superb win in the European 5000. As with all running, development takes time as conditioning kicks in (club runners be patient and learn!). I just hope that the famed hard task master Salazar gets the balance right and Mo doesn't get tipped over the precipice. Interesting times ahead for the little guy.

The Monaco meeting built to a wonderful crescendo with Bolt and local hero Christophe LeMaitre on the start line of the 100m at the same time as France's other hero, Renaud Lavillenie was attempting 6.07 in the pole vault at the far end of the stadium and right in front of us, the amazing diva Blanka Vlasic was going for 2.01 in the high jump. Then instead of the steeplechase being 'after the Lord Mayor's show' it was an incredibly fast three way race with Brimin Kipruto (Kenyan of course) missing the world record by 0.01 of a second in 7:53.64. Wonderful stuff all for €6 and we got fireworks at the end. I highly recommend Diamond League meets, this was my second, they make for a great weekend away. In a little under three hours there is non-stop track and field action from the finest athletes in the world and there are no interruptions for inane talk from Colin Jackson & Jonathan Edwards - yes you actually get to see field and longer track events develop.

... and the fight? At the end of the men's 1500 and again right in front of us, two French team mates of North African origin, Mehdi Baala and Mahiedine Mekhissi, squared up. First Baala head butted his adversary then they both threw an avalance of punches at each other. There was nothing about that in the programme.

Gavin Jones, World Champion

Yesterday my old Ranelagh chum Gavin Jones, who now lives in Rome, won the World Masters V50 marathon in Sacramento, California in 2.40.12. It was close, he only won by 25 seconds. Really chuffed, especially as I suggested last year that he should enter; my last words to him a few days ago were "you can win this".

Gavin's pictured at the bottom of this blog: he's the one with hair in the Ranelagh centenary picture and without hair 25 years later!

As I had to be in Swindon on Saturday, I had a pleasant potter around the Parkrun, smashing the 20 minute barrier in the rain and wind. No damage appears to have resulted. Picture shows strength of the wind as well as the work still needed to be done: have I really already lost 1½ stone?!